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Resurrecting the cinema in what was the town’s former library has been a labour of love for Jane, who works as an NHS clinical psychologist, her film industry husband William Johnson and a band of volunteers and supporters who have made it possible.

It was on Jane’s 50th birthday that they heard that their bid to buy the building - which had been The Romany Cinema until 1964 - was successful.

Jane said: “It was a leap of faith. We looked at our business plan and we thought this will never work.”

But it was the intervention of the couple’s friend Peter Richardson, of Comic Strip fame that spurred them on.

Jane said: “He told us, ‘don’t back out now, you have to do this.’”.

The speakeasy-style Totnes Cinema

They were given a head start with two 35mm projectors, seating and a coffee machine rescued from the tip after the demolition of a preview screening room used by Film4, close to William’s old office at Charlotte Street in SoHo.

“We’ve had the bums of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman sitting on those seats,” laughed Jane.

And the rest has come from major fundraising campaigns, asking supporters to become founder members to pledge cash.

Volunteers mix cocktails at the bar at Totnes Cinema

“I remember, I was sat outside with a table asking for money and saying, ‘It’s not a good deal, you won’t get your money back,’ but people supported anyway,” said Jane.

Now, the cinema has set up as a Community Interest Company, has bought its own big screen, installed raked balcony seating, sound proofing and invested in a digital projector to widen the variety of films it can show.

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It operated during the heydey of cinema, when the likes of Marylin Monroe and Humphrey Bogart graced the screen.

But its fortunes slowly faded with the birth of TV.

The very important cocktail menu at Totnes Cinema. You can get juice, wine and beer too, by the way.

Curiously, when the fixtures and fittings of the Romany Cinema were finally removed, five wedding rings were found lodged in framework of the tip-up seating - it was the 60s after all.

Back then, audiences would come in large numbers with Saturday night queues often running along the narrow passageway and under the Butterwalk as far as Harlequin Books, many waiting for anything up to three hours to see such legendary films as Breakfast at Tiffany's, High Noon and Twelve Angry Men. Another large audience came on Saturday mornings to the children's show, where American westerns were a favourite.

Jane said: “That was the heydey in the town and we want to be part of that again.”

Tales from the High Street

Colin said: “That is the beauty of coming together to watch something on the big screen with no other distractions. Film is magical and it is one of the few communal experiences that we still share. It stays with you for a lifetime.”